City of Prince Rupert looks to increase pressure on Province on taxation caps

A city resident offers up comment
regarding  the City's budget for 2015

Last Monday's council session provided one more opportunity for the City of Prince Rupert to put some of the blame on the areas financial woes back on the shoulders of the provincial government.

As the Mayor and a number of councillors, once again recounted the issue of taxation caps and how they are impacting on the city's ability to cover services.

As part of the final public comment phase on budget deliberations, local resident Denis Rowse offered up his concerns regarding the city's plans to once again increase taxes for local residents to address their 200,000 dollar budget shortfall.

His statement provided both Mayor Lee Brain and Councillor Joy Thorkelson an opportunity to cover some familiar territory of recent weeks, as both explained the nature of the impact on the city of provincial taxation caps on local industry.

As part of that commentary Councillor Thorkelson observed that there is currently a letter in draft stage at City Hall. Observing that once it is finished, it will offer local residents the opportunity to send a message to the province when it comes to what the city considers a major issue between the municipality and the provincial government.

Once the letter is approved, Thorkelson would like to see copies of it provided to a number of locations around the city such as the Library, Civic Centre and MLA Jennifer Rice's office to name a few possible spots, offering an opportunity to provide as wide a distribution to it as possible.

She also added that residents could sign a copy of the city composed letter, or create their own original letter to express their concern over the cap situation and the impact that it is having on the city's financial picture,

You can review that portion of the conversation from the City's Video Archive starting at the 21 minute  minute mark.



For more background on City council discussions see our archive page here, we also offer up a page for review that is dedicated towards issues related to taxation for the City, you can access that here.